Designing a multilingual website is more complicated than you think. Sure, you can use translation apps and translation plugins. Everyone does it because it’s mostly free, convenient, and you get your results within seconds. But are you sure you’re getting accurate translations? You also can’t forget the foundations of proper web design. In this case, you have to make sure that your web design and relevant digital media is both aesthetically gorgeous and localized for your target audience.
If you need to get in touch with suitable experts, then consider hiring quality desktop publishing services that can also do professional translations. This is a smart move since you don’t need to worry about back-and forth communication between two different businesses. This is the best way to get both accurate translations and quality digital media that suits your target market.
Two web designers brainstorming for ideas and sketching
When it comes to building any website, you’ll need all the help you can get. Here a few tips showing you the best methods in optimizing a multilingual website and why you’ll ultimately benefit from quality translation services.
Localizing Your Content
You can get away with merely translating your website’s content, but are you sure you’re resonating well with the language market’s audience? This is where localization comes into play. Accurate translations only form part of a multilingual website. As mentioned in the beginning, it is also about tailoring your website’s content that is relevant to your target language market. This includes everything under the sun such as local cultural references and even suitable aesthetics. You also must take note of avoiding faux pas that might unintentionally be offensive to certain people. Here’s a few but key factors in regards to localizing your content.
Suitable Typography
Translating to another language isn’t as straightforward as using a translation app as argued earlier. When it comes to proper web design, you also have to consider typography. As we all know, many languages don’t share the same writing system. This complicates the textual aesthetics of your website.
Let’s say you have a smashing layout in English. The words are arranged exactly where you want them to be at certain lines. But when translating it into Chinese characters, you’ll notice that it isn’t formatted the same way as it was in English. That’s because different writing systems are more economical with their spelling. A single chinese character can represent 2 words in English. That difference can make an entire difference in your content’s final layout. The preferences per culture also varies, there is a science in font selection that you cannot simply ignore. For example, the sight of the font Helvetica has been somewhat synonymous to the US government, since its usage was mainly on tax forms, in that case, if your target demographic exhibits a huge distrust on the US government your website may not fare well on that region.
Sizing also matters. For example, a puny text in English might comprehensible, but a Chinese character in the same size might be entirely unreadable. The intricate strokes in Chinese characters are barely legible in tiny fonts to more or less suggest a comprehensible shape unlike in English.
Appropriate Images.
An important part of reaching out to a global audience is making sure your content is applicable to their tastes and norms. In other words, you should definitely avoid faux pas. Of course, you have to do your part in creating engaging content but at the very least, be careful on what you’re treading on. You never know when you’re treading on a meadow or a minefield.
Depending on the language market you’re targeting, some images and certain references are just plain taboo. This also applies on certain norms. You’ll have to constantly be updated on issues relevant to your target audience. Apply this strategy to all of your website’s content including your promotional materials such as logos, infographics, and ads.
Fitting Color Schemes
Ever heard of some colors considered good luck and bad luck? It doesn’t matter if you believe in it. The important thing is that some of your website’s audience will. And that’s enough reason for you to come up with suitable colors for specific audiences. Depending on their cultural and societal beliefs, some colors indicate visual associations to certain things that either might be favorable or downright unpleasant. And as stated by Neil Patel, carefully consider your target demographic when picking your website’s color scheme and let go of your personal preferences. Try to make sure that your color scheme does not conflict with the beliefs of your target audience. In fact, find one that is highly attractive and resonates well with them.
Distinct Graphics
Try to avoid relying on too much embedded text in your website’s image-based content. Instead, rely on universally understandable illustrations to indicate themes or ideas. Similar to how bathrooms use stick figures to indicate gender rather than through text. You’ll save up a lot more time doing that instead of having a stockpile of graphics that need to be properly translated in multiple languages.
A globally accessible website is one that can be comprehensible through graphics. A good example are the big-name companies revamping their logo design. Take a look at the upgrade logo designs of Facebook, Airbnb, and Starbucks compared to their earlier ones. All three had embedded English text right? Now that they’ve expanded internationally, they can no longer be exclusive to the English language market. They’ve changed their logos into symbols that everyone on the planet can immediately recognize.
Final Takeaway
Although it depends on what website you have, it’s also important to consider that you have the capacity to address foreign speakers in their native language. Again, this depends on what type of website you have. If you run a blog, then it’s certainly okay to promote yourself in multiple languages without having you actually needing to speak it well.
However, if you’re running an e-commerce website, then this is particularly necessary. It would be quite embarrassing if your e-commerce website was well-translated and localized in a certain language market, but you can’t cater to actual native speakers in real time. In this case, try not to overstretch your capacity to service more language markets than you can handle. You can steady your pace to a few language markets as you go along. Nevertheless, the benefits that come with building a multilingual website are just too good to pass up. Having your website easily recognizable and accessible ultimately means more traffic, more transactions, and a strong international following.
